Matt Bowen

Matt Bowen

Personal information
Full name	Matthew Jeremy Bowen
Nickname	Mango
Born	(1982-03-09) 9 March 1982 (age 35) Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Playing information
Height	175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	85 kg (13 st 5 lb)
Position	Fullback, Five-eighth
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 2001–13 North Qld Cowboys 270 130 36 5 597 2014–15 Wigan Warriors 45 24 31 0 158 Total 315 154 67 5 755 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 2003–07 Queensland 10 4 0 0 16 2004 Australia 1 0 0 0 0 2011–12 Indigenous All Stars 2 1 0 0 4 2010–11 PM's XIII 2 0 0 0 0
Source: Herald Sun, rugbyleagueproject.org,Nth Qld Cowboys

Matthew Jeremy Bowen (born 9 March 1982) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 2000s, and 2010s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative fullback, he played in the National Rugby League for Australian club, North Queensland Cowboys, with whom he set the club's record for most matches, and in the Super League for English club, Wigan Warriors. Bowen was the NRL's top try-scorer in the 2005 and 2007 seasons. Former Queensland and Australian captain Darren Lockyer has called Bowen a "little freak", citing his skills and dynamism. Two-time premiership winning coach Phil Gould remarked in 2005 that he was a "modern-day icon of the game", saying that "Bowen has unique football instincts. He performs the difficult with ease and some of his feats have redefined what we once believed to be impossible."

Born in Cairns, Queensland, Bowen grew up in the Cape York Aboriginal community of Hopevale. He attended Abergowrie College near Ingham where he started playing rugby league at the age of 12. His school team won the Queensland schoolboys' competition in 1999 and he was named player of the tournament. His schoolboy exploits attracted the attention of a number of NRL clubs in Sydney and Brisbane (including the Broncos, Dragons and Sharks); however, he chose to pursue his professional career with his local team, the North Queensland Cowboys. In 2000, he was part of the Cowboys' reserve grade team that made the grand final of the reserve grade competition and was selected for the Queensland under-19 team.